THE RED HAIRED WOMEN

"might they have come back to you by any chance?"

"no"

"we're just covering facts ma'am....if you could tell us what happened, we might..." started Shaun, but his sentence was interrupted.

"officer we left them there, haven't set eyes on them since" said Catherine.

"you're not police men are you?" said Sammie suddenly.

"pardon?" replied Shaun.

"your shoes... they're designed by Allan Gould and there are only two of it in the world. One is on the foot or probably in the closet of Jeremiah Brent, the famous Scottish socialite and the other is somewhere in the British isles. Your accent.... you're British and there's no way a police officer would be able to afford Allan even if he's blood red dirty" Sammie said in one breath then she pursed her lips.

"so who the fuck are you and what do you want from us" she added.

"Griffith eyed her for a moment, looked at Shaun's shoes, then at him, before turning back to Sammie.

"you're a smart woman Sammie, but sometimes, you should learn to keep your intelligence hidden and your mouth shut"

Griffith said, pulling out a gun from his shoulder holster. Catherine instantly jumped up from her seat across the two men and she was about to move towards Sammie, but she stopped in her tracks when she heard Griffith cluck his tongue.

"sit back down lady, the niceties are over" he said, pointing his gun at her then he turned to Sammie.

"you too miss smart ass.... join her on the couch"

"c'mon" he added, pointing the gun in her direction.

Catherine slowly sat back on the couch, never taking her eyes off Griffith and the gun.

Sammie swallowed her spittle as her throat instantly ran dry. She stalked her way slowly to the couch. Lord what had they gotten themselves mixed up in...all because they wanted to be of help to children.

Griffith cocked his head once he had seen the both of them unsettled down on the couch before he spoke.

"Now pay attention carefully, I do not like to repeat my words" said Griffith slowly, with emphasis on the not like to repeat my words.

The two women just started at him, with Catherine muttering silent words of prayer in fear.

"three children spent the night in this very house, children of the now ex minister of Britain and now they're mysteriously missing from the police station, which you two claim to have dropped them off at. Now I'm going to ask you two nicely, where are they?"

"are you deaf Mister? we've told you...we dropped them off. We don't know" Sammie replied, though she did not know where she got the courage from.

Griffith's eyes widened in surprise.

"I see you don't know how to be... properly afraid..you should be more like your sister here" he said, gesturing to a shivering, muttering Catherine.

"cousin" Sammie butted in.

"we're cousins not sisters"

"Sammie stop it" Catherine prompted her, scared out of her wits.

"I did tell you those children were trouble didn't I" she said agitatedly.

"First the police, now criminals"

"ouch..." said Griffith, soothing an imaginary pain on his left breast, where his heart was located.

"you wound me" he added.

"we're just simple business men who are after our own interests" he said, picking up his gun and gesturing dramatically with it.

Sammie gave him a look that was capable of vaporizing a human, if looks could kill.

Catherine and Sammie involuntarily let their eyes follow the movement of his hands.

Shaun got up from his position beside Griffith and went to the window. Leaning against it, he lit a cigarette and from his position, he could see the side profiles of the women.

Their eyes glanced his way every now and then as they spoke with Griffith.

He enjoyed their discomfort and he was as hell sure Griffith did too.

He studied the women. Sammie obviously was the fierce one.. and smart too. Under other circumstance, she was his kind of woman. He was attracted to a woman's smarts and not just her boobs, ass or beauty... though he did enjoy those as well... those were bonuses, but women these days, as he had discovered, were apparently just pussies and no brains it was rare to find ones with smarts.

Catherine was the more feminine and gentle one, obviously faint hearted with the way she was muttering prayers. He chuckled....he found it ridiculous. He hoped she wouldn't pee herself. Most of them did that.

He turned back to the window.

Somewhere in the distance, a neighbor turned on her radio and the wind carried the voice of the newscaster, who was announcing the much anticipated meeting to find a replacement for Adam.

Stubborn man he was, thought Shaun. Would still have been alive and this whole stress would have been avoided, if only he had learnt to compromise and surrender at the right time.

He turned his head sharply back to the living room when he heard a loud slap and Catherine's scream.

"Griffith they're not here" Shaun said calmly. "They might come back and these two, I'm sure will have an idea where to hide them permanently... especially this one" he said, pointing to Sammie.

"then we ensure there's nothing to come back to" Shaun replied, stomping off the last juice his cigarette had, putting it out.

Griffith raised his brows.

"the old way...cut them off...if they have nowhere to go to, they'll wander....if they wander, the easier they get caught" said Shaun.

Griffith's eyes glinted with understanding.

"Then there's no use for these two" said Griffith, angling his gun at the women.

Catherine screamed the moment the gun faced her direction.

"there's no point Griffith" said Shaun.

"why waste them when we can use them" he added, folding his hands.

Griffith paused for a moment, still letting his gun point at the women before he let his hands fall to his side. Then he returned to his position, on the couch facing the women. Catherine and Sam felt their blood pressure slowly return to it's normal level, their muscular tension, relax, at least they were not going to die today..so they thought, but they had no idea there were fates somewhat worse than death. At least with death came peace, the dead know no pain, they make no mistakes, they are free.

Shaun picked up his phone "get in here" he said into the receiver and dropped the call.

Two men burst their way through the door few seconds later. Griffith snapped his fingers and pointed at the women.

One of the men jabbed the girls and they felt themselves slowly slip from reality into that sometimes dreamless dreamland every unconscious person drifts into.

As Sammie drifted into unconsciousness, she heard Griffith's voice but if sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away. She felt his gloved hands under her jaw.

"let's temper that fiery attitude of yours my dear" was all she heard before she felt herself drift away, the sound of the neighbor's radio, no longer having the voice of the news caster was playing a slow tune, as if the entire event was rehearsed in a movie. The moment her eyes shut, the music ended

Griffith stood up and dusted imaginary particles off his jacket, then he called in another man.

"raze it... make it look fancy....you can even throw in a nice touch" he said and walked out the door. Shaun looked at the women for a split second then he followed behind Griffith, out the door.

The men set out to carry out the instructions they were given.

One of them hefted the women on his shoulders and walked out the door. He opened the trunk of his car and put them one after the other in it. Then he slammed it shut.

The other two doused the house in fuel while another placed a call.

Few minutes later, another car pulled into the driveway, bearing a wrapped up bundle but by that time, Griffith and Shaun were already halfway to the airport.

They boarded a plane back to Britain, enjoying the finest champagne onboard, as though they were just returning from a road trip, only this road trip was by air and involved other activities.

One of the men flicked a lighter as they walked out the door and let it drop.

Flames flickered to life and spread slowly across the floor, consuming everything in it's path. In 20 minutes, the house was swarming with onlookers and more than 15 person's were ringing the fire department.

*********

The man lifted the women from the trunk of his car and bundled them together He tied them together, their backs to each other and stowed them away behind some crates aboard a cargo plane.

They were still unconscious.

He went back to his car and placed a call to make his report.

"done boss" he said into the receiver.

The man at the other end just grunted and dropped the call.